Not looking for an easy fight in his return after failing to capture the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) interim Lightweight title against Tony Ferguson last October at UFC 216, Kevin Lee signed on to face Edson Barboza in the headlining bout of this weekend’s (Sat., April 21, 2018) UFC Fight Night 128 event in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
“Motown Phenom,” however, was surprised Barboza took the fight coming off a lopsided defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov in Dec. 2017 (see it), though he is appreciative of the Brazilian bomber stepping up to the plate. While Lee highly considers Barboza the best striker in the 155-pound division, he does see plenty of holes in the Brazilian’s game, which he plans to capitalize on come fight night. And the result will be an even worse “whooping” delivered by Nurmagoemdov.
“There’s holes in Edson that he shows in his fights. I am expecting the best version of him. The Khabib fight was good, but there were so many guys that did better against him. Khabib just kind of went out there and ran him over,” Lee declared during a recent appearance on “The MMA Hour.”
Just about everyone was singing Khabib’s praises for his dominant performance against Barboza; however, Lee was far from impressed
“Khabib was eating a lot of shots, and was really square coming forward. I wasn’t too impressed with his (Khabib’s) performance,” he said. “I am going to go out there and will put a whooping on him much worse than that … and worse than what Tony gave him. Khabib beat him, but I am going to beat him in all aspects. Khabib did what he as going to do. If I go out there and do that, it’s going to be the same shit,” the outspoken Lightweight contender concluded.
With the lightweight title picture clearing itself up at UFC 223, Lee hopes to return to the big dance with a few impressive wins … beginning with Barboza. When his time rolls around again, Lee hopes Nurmagoemdov is still holding the belt to show the world just what it takes to defeat the dominant Russian.
He just better hope this guy doesn’t get to “The Eagle” first.